Sesame Workshop
Sesame Workshop (SW), formerly the Children's Television Workshop (CTW), is an American nonprofit organization which has been responsible for the production of several educational children's programs—including its first and best-known, Sesame Street—that have been televised internationally. Television producer Joan Ganz Cooneyand foundation executive Lloyd Morrisett developed the idea to form an organization to produce Sesame Street, a television series which would help children, especially those from low-income families, prepare for school. They spent two years, from 1966 to 1968, researching, developing, and raising money for the new series. Cooney was named as the Workshop's first executive director, which was termed "one of the most important television developments of the decade".4 Sesame Street premiered as a series on National Educational Television (NET) in the United States on November 10, 1969, and moved to NET's successor, the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), in late 1970. The Workshop was formally incorporated in 1970. Gerald S. Lesser and Edward L. Palmerwere hired to perform research for the series; they were responsible for developing a system of planning, production, and evaluation, and the interaction between television producers and educators, later termed the "CTW model". They also hired a staff of producers and writers. After the initial success of Sesame Street, they began to plan for its continued survival, which included procuring additional sources of funding and creating other television series. The early 1980s were a challenging period for the Workshop; difficulty finding audiences for their other productions and a series of bad investments harmed the organization until licensing agreements stabilized its revenues by 1985. After Sesame Street's initial success, the CTW began to think about its survival beyond the development and first season of the show, since their funding sources were composed of organizations and institutions that tended to start projects, not sustain them. Government funding ended by 1981, so the CTW developed other activities, including unsuccessful ventures into adult programs, the publications of books and music, international co-productions, interactive media and new technologies, licensing arrangements, and programs for preschools. By 2005, income from the CTW's international co-productions of the series was $96 million. By 2008, the ''Sesame Street ''Muppets accounted for $15–17 million per year in licensing and merchandising fees. Cooney resigned as CEO during 1990; David Britt was named as her replacement. On June 5, 2000, the CTW changed its name to Sesame Workshop5 to better represent its activities beyond television, and Gary Knell became CEO. H. Melvin Ming replaced Knell during 2011. During 2014, Ming was succeeded by Jeffrey D. Dunn. Television programs produced * 3-2-1 Contact * The Adventures of Letterman * Bert and Ernie's Great Adventures (broadcast on Treehouse TV) * Big Bag * The Bloodhound Gang (TV series) * Cro (TV series) * Dragon Tales * The Electric Company * The Electric Company (2009 TV series) * Esme & Roy (broadcast on Treehouse TV) * The Furchester Hotel * Ghostwriter (broadcast on PBS and BBC) * Mathnet * Panwapa * Pinky Dinky Doo (broadcast on Discovery Kids, CBC, Noggin and CBeebies) * A Place of Our Own * Play with Me Sesame (broadcast on Noggin/Nick Jr.) * Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat (broadcast on PBS) * Sesame English * Sesame Street (broadcast on PBS and Treehouse) * Sponk! * Square One Television (broadcast on PBS) * Square One Television Math Talk (broadcast on PBS) * Tiny Planets * The Upside Down Show * Zak Tales Category:Companies Category:Sesame Street Category:Browse Category:Article stubs Category:Media